I need a fresh idea. I'm at my Dad's and in the course of this evening, his '64 Chevy C20 started getting harder and harder to shift without grinding the gears. It has the 292cid straight six with the granny 4-speed. It finally got to the point where he had to start it in gear and rpm shift it to get it home.

I pulled the inspection cover and can see the throw-out bearing moving. I've adjusted the linkage so tight that the throw-out bearing is running all the time (I know, too tight but it was for test purposes only) and still the clutch won't disengage although I can see the pressure plate pull back from the clutch liner. The only other thing that I've seen cause this was when a piece of clutch lining broke off and jammed between the clutch plate and the pressure plate but that doesn't match the scenario where it kept getting harder and harder to shift.

What am I overlooking before we tear it all apart?

Thanks in advance.

 

Oil soaking the lining swelling the disk.....

 

I was going to say "It's a Chevy", but that's back when Chevy actually made a good truck. Could it be that the lining has worn so much that when you have it adjusted up tight enough to work properly, that there isn't enough throw left TO disengage it?

 

Might depend on the material, but I don't think I've seen a clutch disc swell up yet, if it did I didn't notice. Had many oil soaked ones, never saw one swell. Had one it a two cylinder john deere that was so old it fell apart, pieces fell out when I disengaged the clutch.


Hard to say without taking it apart, but a couple of things come to mind. Bad pilot bearing, locking up on the input shaft driving it even when the clutch is disengaged.

Warped clutch disc, I've seen discs start to come apart and warp, looked like a belview washer when they were taken out.

I had a dampening spring jump out of one of mine once, rode around in the flywheel recess, caused a similar thing.

 

Well, it doesn't sound like anything that can be fixed without tearing it apart and that won't get done before I leave in the AM.

Thanks for the ideas.